Reflecting on Henry Jenkins

We had the honor today to skype with Henry Jenkins. We were able to have a an hour in a half Q&A session. I am going to go over some of the things that I learned and found very interesting.

Henry Jenkins said that he is wanting society to realize that media can be a resource for the public. Technology has grown so much and there has been so many changes, but how do we use it properly.

Twitter has recently become a way for people to communicate and brand themselves. In Convergence Culture Henry Jenkins talks a lot about how fans influence transmedia and twitter is becoming a huge part of it. By using twitter's buzz factor we are not able to tell if a movie will succeed or fail within the first week before the film comes out. Some people believe that fans are powerless, but Dr. Jenkins proves them wrong in the chapter about Harry Potter. At first executives did not know what to do with fan bases, but now they have started to embrace them and realize that it is free, good publicity.

Within fan bases people are beginning to role play series such as Mad Men in their offices. This was not what the executives predicted what would happen within the fan bases, but they needed to figure something out. Executives are also uses fan bases to recruit new ideas and talents and fans are now becoming the new professionals.

The idea of social media tools has grown extremely in the past few years. We have facebook, twitter, myspace, and more. These social networks can be a great opportunity. These days we can keep the friends we know forever and never really stay out of touch because we are connected through a form of social networking. People of an older generation use to not be able to keep connected with friends who went to different colleges, moved to different states, etc.; however, today they are able to reconnect through these different networks.

Today, more and more children and staying indoors playing video games, connecting online through second life and more. Children do not play outside like they use to and some say that their social skills might not be as strong. However, Dr. Jenkins says that these are just new influences and teaching tools. You could even say that the children who play and connect through second life are socially interacting and having play date just different then the play dates I had when I was younger. By using social networks you can become socially isolated or create strong social connections. You just need to learn how to use it in a way that's right for you.

The advice that he gave us is to build our networks now. Be friends or follow people who are doing what you would want to do one day.

This was such an amazing experience being able to meet and talk with Henry Jenkins. I learned so much more and if you are wanting to learn more about him feel free to check out his blog.